5 Mistakes Amazon Local is Making with Me

Good news for small business: You don’t need to be a giant-slayer to take on – and beat - Amazon Local, Groupon, Living Social or any other daily deal promoter.

I am a huge Amazon fan and have been a Prime member for more than ten years. I even have an Echo. They changed the face of retail, then they changed the face of publishing. But Amazon Local isn’t going to change the face of local shopping, at least as it is now; here’s why.

Touted as ‘the latest Groupon killer’ by the Wall Street Journal Amazon Local Launch, Amazon Local joined the family of daily deal middlemen in the summer of 2011. It should come as no surprise that the giant retail game-changer Amazon set their sites on this market, given that Groupon has been one of the fastest-growing companies since it’s own launch in 2008.

The only real question was, would Amazon change the game again?

Looking to change consumer behavior when it comes to consumer services and destinations (e.g.., restaurants, professional services, healthy and medical services, pets, travel, education, beauty, adventure and activity businesses, and so on) Amazon Local wants to be the go-to site for consumers at the start of their local buying journey, just as they made Amazon.com the beginning of the buying journey for consumer goods and commodity items for millions of customers worldwide.

Here’s the problem, though, in my totally humble, I-could-be-wrong opinion. They’re trying to sell experiential-based local business services and products the same way they sell commodity products online, but consumers don’t shop for local businesses that way. 

Consumers shopping for toasters will start (and end) on Amazon.com. Consumers shopping for a skilled stylist in a salon that caters to a particular kind of client or provides a unique ambience? They start by asking their friends, surveying connections on social networks, and searching on Google.  They rarely - if ever - start by looking for a half price deal.  

Be patient, they say, eventually consumers will realize they should start looking for local businesses on Amazon Local, just like they realized they should price Amazon’s products before visiting local retailers. And there lies the problem: When it comes to consumer services and destinations, people aren’t usually looking for the best price, or even the best value. They are looking for the best experience.

5 Mistakes Amazon Local is Making with Me

Amazon Local isn’t local enough.

I get multiple Amazon Local emails every day and have surfed their web portal as well. I’ve been cookied, zip-coded and citied. I regularly check in at restaurants and retail locations via social networks. By now, any big data-driven marketer should have a pretty good idea of where I live, work and play.

But the deals that Amazon Local keeps offering me are near none of these destinations. While they are technically “local” in that they are within an hour or so from my home, these aren’t the type of services that I want to drive an hour to find. These are services that I want to be convenient to my home or professional life, so that I can get there on a lunch break or stop on my way home from work.

Amazon Local isn’t inclusive enough.

Because retailers must apply and be accepted through a screening process, there are only a very limited number of businesses participating. I’m not going to go to just any old salon or spa. I’m not going to take my car to any old auto service business. I’m not going to plan a night out for my family at just any old restaurant. If I can’t find a business in the Amazon Local marketplace that I (a) know of because I've heard about it from a friend or passed by it on my way to and fro; and, (b) love, trust or am at least curious about, that is also near my home or my job, I’m just not that interested.

Amazon Local isn’t predictive enough.

As I mentioned, I get several emails a day from Amazon Local suggestive of everything under the sun, from spa services to piano lessons to resume writing services to laser hair removal to guided backpacking to learning how to trade on the stock market to…. Well, to too many things. Presumably, Amazon has access to a significant amount of big data and certainly they have access to my 10 years of Prime buying history – but they have yet to offer me something that I want, from a business I want to buy from.

Amazon Local isn’t optimized enough.

Granted, this is more of a professional miss for me, since I get paid to build business for my clients using content marketing and digital marketing tactics under my head-of-marketing hat. Think of it as free advice for Amazon Local – and worth every penny!

Amazon Local's merchant pages and offers aren’t optimized for search or real people. They’re full of repetitive terms and conditions. They’re more focused on limitations and disclaimers than inducements to try. They don’t tell me much of anything about the businesses or professionals in terms of the type of experience I can expect as a customer. And they aren’t well-optimized for local search, so if I start my buying journey on Google (as most of us do) then the chances that I’ll get an Amazon Local buying opportunity served up to me in search ranges from little to none.

Amazon Local isn’t compelling enough.

It’s no secret to anyone by now that retailers, including service businesses, professionals, and other merchants that participate in Amazon Local, Groupon, or any other daily deal site take significant risks to do so in hopes of bringing in new buyers, for the chance to convert them into repeat customers. Knowing this, as a retailer I would want to know that Amazon Local is building in some value-add for me in return for my giving them a share of the profits. As a consumer, I want to know that Amazon Local deals are actually going to help the businesses that I know and love, not just take a share of revenue that a local small business might have had to themselves otherwise.

We don’t need another Groupon.

And I know that Amazon Local doesn’t want to be another Groupon, or another Living Social or another any-other-daily-dealer. They want to build something better. As a guiding principle, they choose to err on the side of their customers, who, in this case, are both the customers who buy deals as well as the merchants who sell them. I hope that they will continue to refine this product in ways that serve both.

You might also like:

• 6 Ways Special Offers Can Hurt Your Business
• What You Should Do Before You Daily Deal

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Elizabeth Kraus is the author of 365 Days of Marketing and the 2015 Small Business Marketing Calendar (12 Marketing Ideas Your Mom Would Hate), available on amazon.com, and packed with marketing inspiration and a working calendar that you can use to attract – engage – retain and motivate more local customers in the coming year.